An electronic apparatus, such as a mobile telephone or a car navigation system, often includes a coordinate-input device, such as a joy stick, a touch pad, or a touch panel, for moving a mark, such as a cursor or a pointer. It is essential to easily move the mark from a current position to a target position.
FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a circular touch pad 501 disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-268663. The circular touch pad 501 has a button S1 provided at the center thereof for stopping a cursor on a screen of a display. The touch pad 501 also has annular speed-setting regions A1 to A4 provided concentrically about a button S1. More particularly, the speed-setting regions A1 to A4 are arranged in this order from the button S1 radially in the touch pad 501. An operator has a finger touch the speed-setting regions A1 to A4, thereby moving a cursor on the screen of the display. The speed-setting regions A1 to A4 determine the speed and direction of the movement of the cursor. The farther from the button S1 the speed-setting region is touched, the faster the cursor moves. The cursor moves in a direction corresponding to the direction from the button S1 to the touched position of the speed-setting regions A1 to A4. The cursor stops upon the operator pressing the button S1 or removing the finger from the touch pad 501.
In general, the cursor is moved precisely just before being positioned the cursor at a target position. In the conventional touch pad 501, in order to move the cursor in an opposite direction consecutively after moving the cursor excessively, the operator removes the finger from the touch pad 501, and then, moves the finger from the touched position on the speed-setting region across the button S1 to the opposite position. More specifically, in order to position the cursor precisely, the operator is required to view the finger which is removed from the touch pad 501 and moves to a different position.
In order to move the cursor precisely, the conventional touch pad 501 control the cursor with the speed-setting regions separated precisely based on the speed and direction. Ordinary personal computers can execute the precise positioning of a cursor with a pointing device, such as a mouse or a touch pad, however, can execute the rough positioning of the cursor more easily with a scrollbar than the pointing device. Thus, such ordinary personal computers require plural methods for moving the cursor, hence being inefficient.